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Letter: A violation of the Bill of Rights

By Lee Paulson, Glenwood on Jul 25, 2012 at 12:54 a.m.

The Bill of Rights written to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority clearly states that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. How then can we be voting on a religious matter supported only by particular groups of conservatively biased Christians to ban same-sex marriage by state decree? Certain draconian passages in the Bible alone are used by them to justify this blatant discrimination on clearly religious grounds.

If Christian or Jewish gays or lesbians wish to solemnize their union in a church or synagogue wedding before God and there are churches or temples willing to accommodate them, how can a vote by the electorate to undermine their religious commitment to each other not be a direct attack on the already stated provisions of the Bill of Rights as written by the Founding Fathers? Certainly they did not anticipate that same-sex unions would become an issue in the future, but in the modern world it has become a distinctly religious issue and must be addressed as such.

The amendment to our state constitution should be struck down by the Minnesota Supreme Court as a violation of the Bill of Rights and should not be subject to change by religious conservatives who demand that their particular dogmas be supported by state fiat in a secular society. Why hasn't this amendment to the constitution been brought before the state Supreme Court for a verdict before the November election?